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<blogEntry id="2090">
	<title><![CDATA[Wing Chun and Aikido]]></title>
	<body><![CDATA[So...I signed up for a Wing Chun Do Kung Fu class at the university recently and just had my first lesson yesterday.

I'd been looking forward to seeing what it's like --- if only as a good complement to Aikido --- but naturally won't be doing the Thursdays (which would take away from my time at NWA).  Sensei's jealous enough about it as it is.  :-D  I did, however, have some bad feelings about it...after signing up, I saw a poster in which the Wing Chun instructor claims he is "Third Generation Bruce Lee" and posts a picture of himself with his former instructor next to a picture of his instructor with Bruce Lee.  Not only is this tacky on it's own, but what makes it even cheesier (and more dubious) is that the second picture is obviously a very badly doctored image in which he combined two separate graphics of Bruce Lee and his own teacher.  The pixellation and different resolutions are a dead giveaway.  I mean, come on.  The graphics editor in me was reeling.  The martial artist in me was quite apprehensive, to say the least.

But I was pleasantly surprised.  Though warming up by kicking a hacky sack around and bowing to a Bruce Lee poster were...singularly unique experiences.  The instructor, aside from looking like a club bouncer, seems to be able to explain things in fairly good detail (though I found some of the language he used had a predominantly militaristic tone to it).  Aside from the awkward differences in stance and movement (especially the footwork --- striding forward with the toes of one foot pointed inward feels just plain weird, after all --- and some deflections) that will take a fair amount of getting used to, Wing Chun seems just as I had expected it to be --- an art based on many of the very same principles as Aikido, only applied and described in different ways.  There is a focus on one's centreline, balance, adaptation to differently-sized opponents and redirection of energy --- so much so that a lot of the instructor's movements often mimicked what we've already been doing in class on Monday nights.  I couldn't help but smile.  

Will keep y'all posted...]]></body>
	<date>09-12-2005</date>
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